ON A SPONTANEOUS DISEASE AMONG AUSTEALIAN RABBITS. 91 



alive (one month after inoculation). I also inoculated two Guinea- 

 pigs, of which one died three days afterwards, and the other showed 

 no further effect than an abcess at the spot of inoculation. 



The disease can be easily communicated through the intestines 

 by means of infected food, but in such cases death occurs only 

 after a rather extended period. 



The blood, the spleen, and the urine have all been found to 

 contain the germs of contagion. 



Microbiology. 

 The blood and the organs always contain a small microbe. This 

 microbe is readily coloured with aniline colours, especially good 

 results having been obtained by using Lseffler's blue. The blood 

 of a rabbit having died of the disease when inoculated in ordinary 

 veal broth produces a cultivation. As soon as eighteen or twenty 

 hours afterwards the liquid loses its clearness. After a few days 

 the cultivation collects at the bottom of the tube and leaves above 

 it a clear and transparent liquid. The alkaline reaction of the 

 broth does not alter. This cultivation shows a microbe of the 

 shape of a Streptococcus. The pure cultivation inoculated in 

 another rabbit produces death in about forty-eight hours and the 

 same microbe is found in the blood. These cultivations when 

 kept for two months exposed to the air have been found virulent 

 for rabbits. On the 20th July a rabbit was inoculated with a 

 cultivation, which had been kept since the 18th of May, and died 

 on the 23rd, about sixty hours after inoculation. 



Temperature at time of inoculation ... 39° 5 C. 



,, 24 hours after inoculation 40° 2 ,, 



,, 40 hours after inoculation 40° 7 ,, 



„ 52 hours after inoculation 41° 5 ,, 



Post-mortem Examination of a Rabbit having been inoculated with 

 the Cultivation. 

 A small quantity of matter at the spot of inoculation. Fibrin- 

 ous peritonitis generally distributed. The left kidney black and 

 discoloured when cut. The other kidney very congested. Con- 



